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To the Group (and Other Interested Readers):

Sorry for my recent absence in writing here. As I noted to Paul, I had a broken hand (cycling accident), and typing with one hand is, well, a pain! It was very interesting to read the wide-ranging comments above. I have to say here, though, something, again, about academia. I am indeed one of those who feels -- how shall I say? -- malcontent with academia, at least in my experience with it. I just came back from Toronto (where I went to grad school), visiting a friend there. He got a Ph.D. in Medieval Studies, is a wonderful Latinist, a great teacher, smart, a good researcher -- and has never found an academic position. Just consider how many people out there are in this same situation; that, to me, indicates that something is wrong in academia. The "market" is not working. More to the point of our recent group discussions -- I still believe that it's not just that we don't have cross-disciplinarity, it's that we are not even thinking about what our university-age audience NEEDS, what the future NEEDS. WHAT should we be teaching? Is the entire structure of the university sensible? I again think that we need to think about the "META", really radical change. If we don't, who will? The administrators? Policy-makers?

More later...